During a tour of Objective One projects in Neath Port Talbot, Mrs Kinnock responded to Plaid claims that Wales could lose more than &#xA3;100m because the Treasury does not take exchange rate fluctuations between the pound and the euro into account when passing on European money to the National Assembly.

She said, "Plaid Cymru either don't understand structural funds or are deliberately misunderstanding to score political points. The situation in Wales is the same as it is in any assisted area in the European Union.

"The Objective One funds are passed to central government and calculations are then made about the annual distributions to assisted areas.

"There can be no immediate responses to changes in the exchange rate - it would render the system unworkable.

"Are Plaid Cymru really calling for a system where the Treasury would recall funds if the exchange rate went the other way? They would be screaming blue murder."

Mrs Kinnock went on to claim that almost 1,000 jobs had been created by Objective One in Neath Port Talbot alone.

Asked about the 1,000-job figure claim, Neath Port Talbot's European Officer Lisa Noonan said, "The current Welsh European Funding Office database information is inaccurate, but revised figures are due out in November. The last figures we received were as of May 2003.

"The figure for the number of jobs created to date in NPT, through both local and regional projects, lies somewhere between 863 and 1008, so the best figure would be 900, split roughly into 700 jobs created by local projects and 200 created by regional projects.

"At the moment it is difficult to pinpoint exactly where the jobs have been created, however they can be split down into sectors."